Perspective

Business property insurance is a must to protect your company’s assets. While business property insurance isn’t required by law, it’s a wise investment to limit your liability in the event of a natural disaster or other calamity. Without it, your business may not survive financially.
Most business property insurance plans are tailored to the business and can cover a variety of losses, including damage from fires, electrical surges, even embezzlement by an employee. The legal Web site Nolo.com recommends that business...

Many marketers launch their social media programs because they feel they need to and then scramble to understand both how they will make these work and how they will be managed. Most of them do this with no goal in mind and worse, no understanding of how social media marketing (SMM) works.
Many believe that social is the answer to customer acquisition and are short-sided in defining realistic results. Unfortunately this all results in lost time, lost customers, lost market share, and lost profitability.
Stop chasing your tail in social. Start...

Successful ecommerce website design starts with applying the basics of retail success. To run a successful ecommerce website, you need to do what successful bricks-and-mortar retailers do. Follow these rules to get your ecommerce site visitors actually shopping online.
1) The retailer has a product or products that she wants to sell.
Everyone in ecommerce or thinking of getting into ecommerce has this one figured out. Want a new car? Fresh spinach? A replacement part for your ancient typewriter? You’ll find it on the ‘Net. But...

A prospect is a prospective client, someone who could potentially use your service but hasn’t done so yet. They may not have heard of your service, or they may not know enough about your service to determine its value, or they simply haven’t been asked.
Identify
Who is a prospect for your consulting services? Of course, that depends on what service you perform for clients. If you’re a consultant who specializes in selecting appropriate pets for clients, your prospects are people who want to find a new pet. To turn these...

Now that you know what the risks are, what can you do about them? First, you analyze each risk associated with the project. Take all the internal risks, anything that could stand in the way of successfully completing the project(on time and under budget), and prioritize them. Which risks need the most attention because they could shut down the project completely? Consider these your top priorities — risks that, if not addressed, will spell disaster. Next, look at risks that can be monitored closely and managed with some adjustments....

Small business owners who are concerned about their sales and marketing capabilities could begin to see improvement by breaking down the term “sales and marketing” into discrete, manageable elements. You end up with a checklist that can be reviewed in order to prioritize areas needing improvement – a checklist that will serve as the groundwork for an effective marketing strategy.
In the suggested list below, I will use examples from a retail florist business to make some points clear.
1) MARKETS. How much do you really...

Thinking of writing a business plan? Here is a business plan outline, listing the sections in the order in which they will appear in your completed plan with a brief explanation of each section to help you get organized and guide you through the process.
The Executive Summary
While appearing first, this section is written last. It summarizes the key elements of the entire business plan.
The Industry
An overview of the industry sector that your business will be a part of, including industry trends, major players in the industry, and...

Employee Recruitment, Retention and Wellness
Providing health insurance to employees is a valuable tool to attract and retain the best employees. It also makes your company more attractive if your coverage is more comprehensive than that of your competitors. It’s not unusual for employees to stick with a particular job or employer, even if it is not their ideal job, because the health care coverage is comprehensive and affordable.
Companies benefit in many areas when their health coverage includes wellness features to promote such...

Just as when you evaluate potential co-founders, there are three essential questions you need to answer when considering any potential hire for your startup: Can they do the job? Will they do the job? And, will they fit the culture of the organization?
First off, how do you know if they can do the job? If you’re a subject-matter expert, you can ask for samples of work and evaluate them. Give them hypothetical challenges to solve and pay as much attention to how they address the problem as the solution they come up with. Give them...

The question of how to increase profit margins is one that an owner of any kind of business, big or small, asks his or herself throughout the life cycle of the company.
While you likely have a vision and a plan by which you want to approach that vision and make it into a reality, it can all be for nothing if you don’t have the profit margins to justify the effort.
So it makes sense that, in that context, you would want to do everything possible in order to make sure that vision is achieved.
But just what can you do to make things...